Good God, They've Gotten to Her Already

Amid all the frenzy and the revelations and recriminations and charges and counter-charges surrounding Sarah Palin over the last couple days; and the questions about her qualifications and the McCain's camp vetting process and reporters digging around her past and her preparations for her speech - our nation's priorities remain in order, as the one constituency that apparently really counts got its opportunity to interview the candidate and provide their thumbs up. New York Sun reporter Eli Lake lays it all out for us:

While the Alaska governor has been kept out of the public eye, she has met with some key interest groups. According to one Republican source familiar with the meeting, Mrs. Palin was introduced to Aipac leaders here by Senator Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut who endorsed Senator McCain last night.

Mr. Lieberman said, according to this source, that he remembered his big week eight years ago when he was tapped by Vice President Gore to be the 2000 Democratic nominee's running mate, and how he was so focused on his speech before.

This source said Mrs. Palin "talked about her personal connection to Israel that she has had since she was a young child, it has been part of her views and how important this small country was for so many people for so many reasons." This source also said, "She subscribes to Senator McCain's 'never again' policy," a slogan popularized after the Holocaust and a promise never to allow genocide to go unchallenged. Mrs. Palin also said her mother had recently traveled to Israel, according to this source, and that she displayed an Israeli flag in her office in Juneau.

The Alaska governor with no record on Middle East foreign policy impressed Aipac. "We got a good productive discussion on the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and we were pleased that Governor Palin expressed her deep personal commitment to the safety and well-being of Israel," a spokesman for Aipac, Joshua Block, said.

He added, "Now that both Democrats and Republicans have determined their respective tickets, Aipac is pleased that both parties have selected four pro-Israel candidates, and in doing so they have reaffirmed the broad bipartisan support that exists in our country for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship." [EA]

So we've gotten that out of the way. Now we can get on to discussing issues where opposing views are allowed, such as whether a woman can be a good mother while holding down a full-time job (and here I thought that was off-limits, too - go figure). (Thanks to Mickey Kaus.)